San Francisco’s First and Only Rock’n’Roll Movie: CRIME 1978, a short documentary film about the legendary punk band and Amoeba favoriteCRIME, will screen at the Victoria Theatre in SF on Thursday, November 14th at 7pm, followed by everyone's favorite rock & roll alien concert flick, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1973)! Introducing the event are CRIME 1978 producer Henry S. Rosenthal (aka Hank Rank of CRIME) and filmmaker Jon Bastian. There will also be live music by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Ron “The Ripper” Greco (original CRIME bassist), and CRIME WAVE (CRIME tribute band with members of Egrets on Ergot, Cheap Tissue, The Richmond Sluts), plus a Ziggy Stardust lookalike contest!

The “rock verite” footage of CRIME was filmed entirely in 1978 by Larry Larson for his local cable access program In Review, and is newly edited by Bastian. Larson found a unique experience in the burgeoning punk scene taking place at the Mabuhay Gardens, a Filipino restaurant and bar-gone-gritty nightclub on Broadway in North Beach. The booker Dirk Dirksen regularly landed local punk and New Wave acts at the club, including the Avengers, The Nuns, The Dils, Pearl Harbor & the Explosions, and CRIME. CRIME’s 1976 single of “Hot Wire My Heart” (backed with “Baby You're So Repulsive”) is credited as the first single released by a U.S. punk act from the West Coast. Like some of their punk contemporaries, they took on individual personas and built a group image, wearing police uniforms and billing themselves as "San Francisco's First and Only Rock 'n' Roll Band." The members of CRIME in 1978 were Johnny Strike (Gary John Bassett) on vocals and guitar, Frankie Fix (Marc D’Agostino) on vocals and guitar), Ron The Ripper (Ron Greco) on bass, and Hank Rank (Henry S. Rosenthal) on drums.